Within the medical industry, there is a need for holding a variety of medical instruments for various purposes. For example, a surgeon needs to be able to access medical instruments for surgery quickly, a dentist needs to be able to access his or her dental tools, and virtually all medical instruments must be placed within a holder during a sterilization process. Conventional holding containers may include a variety of bases holding insertable trays that have specifically-designed areas for holding specific tools. However, with smaller tools, such as small dental tools, it is frequently inefficient to store them in these containers, since they're prone to being moved around and jostled as the container is moved. This may result in a grouping of smaller tools in one area, which means that the surgeon or medical staff member must sift through the grouping to locate a specific tool.
Conventionally, medical instruments are often held in containers or trays with holes and grommets. The grommets may be positioned within the hole and provide a secure interface between the medical instrument and the hole within the container or tray. Often, the grommets are sized to match a certain shaft size of a medical instrument, and a container or tray may include a variety of different sized grommets, each specifically engineered and designed to hold one of a variety of medical instruments. These medical instruments have varying shaft sizes and it often becomes tedious to search for the appropriately sized grommet that matches a particular shaft size of the medical instrument. It is not uncommon for a medical tray to have fifty or more grommets, with a dozen or more different sizes. Thus, matching a specific medical instrument to a specifically sized grommet may be a timely and inefficient process.
Most grommets in use today are intended to be permanent fixtures in medical sterilization trays, in that they are not designed to be removed on a regular basis. This is due to the high risk of harboring bacteria and other contaminants within the spaces, crevices and other areas exposed when the grommet is removed from the tray. When the grommets are permanently installed within the holes, the surfaces of the grommets form tight seals with the container or the tray. This seal may often prevent bacterial from becoming lodge within cracks, crevices or other areas, but it is susceptible to some bacterial contamination, especially when users remove the grommets from the tray. When removed from the tray, grommets may become damaged, which may lead to failing seals and additional places for bacteria to be harbored.
Thus, a heretofore unaddressed need exists in the industry to address the aforementioned deficiencies and inadequacies.